Paris, France | AFP | From legendary British singer David Bowie to Cuban leader Fidel Castro and American boxer Muhammad Ali, here are some of the notable figures who died in 2016. – January – – 5: PIERRE BOULEZ, 90, French conductor-composer. – 7: ANDRE COURREGES, 92 French fashion designer …
Read More »Samba gets new rhythms 100 years after first recording
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Monday nights feel like Saturdays in Rio’s Little Africa neighborhood when the sun sets and the samba starts to play. Surrounded by a mostly young crowd, seven musicians sit around a table with the small four-string guitar called a cavaquinho, the cuica drum …
Read More »REVIEW 2016: Post-imperial strongman duo Putin, Erdogan rile West with renewed alliance
Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | It had seemed impossible to find insults more scathing. Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan of trading oil with Islamic State jihadists and making modern Turkey’s founder Ataturk “roll in his grave”. In a loud slanging match between two masters of …
Read More »Exhumed bodies reveal South Africa’s deep apartheid wounds
Pretoria, South Africa | AFP | After 52 years, Mncedisi Tyopo finally stood beside his father’s grave, looking down at remains being exhumed as part of South Africa’s attempts to come to terms with its painful past. Tyopo’s father Bhonase Vulindlela was an anti-apartheid fighter who was hanged along with …
Read More »France’s new look at Uganda
Stephanie Rivoal, the new French Ambassador to Uganda presented her credentials to President Yoweri Museveni on Oct. 21. She later spoke to the press at her residence in Nakasero on Nov. 18 about France’s ties with Uganda. This is Rivoal’s first posting as a diplomat and, she says, it is …
Read More »VIDEO: Legislators slam UPDF, Uganda Police on human rights
VIDEO: Legislators have expressed concern over what they described as growing human rights violations in the country. They have criticized the Uganda Police and Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces (UPDF) over its role in last month’s killings in Kasese district saying government must use the Human Rights Day to assure the nation …
Read More »Giraffes ‘threatened with extinction’
Paris, France | AFP | Wild giraffe numbers have plummeted by 40 percent in the last three decades, and the species is now “vulnerable” to extinction, a top conservation body warned Thursday. The population of the world’s tallest land mammal dropped to below 100,000 in 2015, mainly due to shrinking …
Read More »‘A New Gambia’ is promised after surprise opposition win
Gambia’s newly elected president has vowed to free all political prisoners and urged exiles who fled the 22-year reign of Yahya Jammeh to return from abroad and help him reform the tiny West African country, writes Carley Petesch “A new Gambia is born,” Adama Barrow said in an interview with …
Read More »Five things to know about Ghana
Accra, Ghana | AFP | Ghana is a resource-rich west African country where worries about the economy are set to dominate Wednesday’s presidential election. Major producer of cocoa, gold Ghana is the world’s second biggest producer of cocoa after Ivory Coast and Africa’s second biggest gold producer after South Africa. …
Read More »AHF strengthens fight against HIV in Rwanda
By Susan Babijja AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) combines efforts with the ministry of health in the fight against HIV in Rwanda as well as controlling new infection that is becoming a challenge. Every 1st of December Rwanda joins the rest of the world in observing the World AIDS day. On …
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